Why Jaylen Brown ‘wasn’t shocked’ by Luka-AD blockbuster originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Celtics completed the largest comeback of the 2024-25 NBA season Sunday night in Philadelphia. But their thrilling victory over the 76ers still took a backseat to one of the most shocking trades in league history.
The Dallas Mavericks dealt five-time First-Team All-NBA superstar Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers late Saturday night in return for a package centered around big man Anthony Davis. The trade took the entire NBA world by surprise, as Mavs general manager Nico Harrison admitted he only had conversations with the Lakers before sending a generational talent to Los Angeles for a surprisingly underwhelming return.
The blockbuster stunned many NBA players, a few of whom initially thought ESPN’s Shams Charania was hacked when he first broke the news. But with a few hours to digest the blockbuster deal, Celtics star Jaylen Brown told reporters it didn’t totally catch him off guard.
“I wasn’t shocked. Maybe a little bit. But the NBA is NBA,” Brown told reporters after the Celtics’ win over the Sixers on Sunday night. “Behind closed doors, you don’t know what’s going on. People fall out, people don’t see eye-to-eye, people have disagreements, so I think some of that could lead into it.”
While Harrison deflected when asked if he thought Doncic didn’t fit into the Mavs’ “culture,” ESPN’s Tim MacMahon reported that “constant concerns about Doncic’s conditioning” were a “major factor” in Dallas approaching L.A. about a trade.
You could argue conditioning concerns still aren’t a good enough reason to trade arguably a top-three player who just led his team to the 2024 NBA Finals, but as Brown suggested, perhaps there was even more going on behind the scenes that led to Doncic’s exit.
“I think for whatever reason, Dallas and L.A., they have their own timelines that they’re looking into,” Brown added. “The Lakers probably wanted to secure their future and Dallas probably wanted to win now and they thought, like, ‘Hey this is what we thought was best.’
“So, it’s surprising initially but then once you think about it, it’s not that surprising.”
Celtics star Jayson Tatum — who along with Brown helped Boston dispatch Doncic’s Mavs in five games to win the 2024 championship — sounded a bit more taken aback than his teammate.
“Didn’t expect it,” Tatum told reporters when asked about the trade. “I’m certain most of us (didn’t expect it), so it was shocking news to me.”
The Doncic-Davis blockbuster may not be the last shocker, either; Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix suggested Sunday on Celtics Pregame Live that Lakers wing Austin Reaves might emerge as a trade candidate between now and Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.
Check out Mannix’s full take in the video player below:
